Knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding premature ventricular contractions among patients: a cross-sectional study.

The proliferation of digital technologies has transformed childhood experiences, creating both opportunities and vulnerabilities. Children today engage with peers, educators, and broader communities through social media, online games, messaging applications, and content-sharing platforms. While these interactions foster learning, creativity, and social bonding, they also create avenues for exploitation, particularly by individuals who seek to manipulate children for sexual purposes. Grooming—long studied in psychology and criminology—has evolved alongside digital platforms, giving rise to cyber grooming, which is characterized by its reliance on online communication, anonymity, and technological reach (). Traditional grooming involves manipulative strategies designed to establish trust and emotional rapport with a child in order to facilitate sexual abuse. Perpetrators often exploit developmental vulnerabilities, including children’s emotional dependence, curiosity, and desire for social acceptance. Cyber grooming extends these dynamics into digital spaces, enabling offenders to interact with multiple victims simultaneously, maintain persistent contact, and employ multimedia content to deepen emotional attachment (). The consequences of grooming—whether offline or online—are profound. Victims may experience long-term psychological effects such as depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and social withdrawal. Academic performance and peer relationships are often negatively impacted, and the secrecy associated with grooming can delay disclosure and intervention (). These findings highlight the importance of understanding both the psychological mechanisms underlying grooming behaviors and the technological affordances that facilitate cyber grooming.